This article explores the rhetorical work done by discourses of professional development in education. In particular it outlines the ways in which the rhetoric of technical expertise, competence and reflective practice are deployed to mobilise professional practices and identities in particular ways and position certain practices and dispositions as specifically professional. The article explores the ways in which audiences are mobilised and the strategies to persuade educators that particular discourses of professionalism are about and for them. This is illustrated through an analysis of a particular discourse of professional development for academics in the UK. The authors argue for and illustrate the illuminating potential of rhetorical analysis to an understanding of different practices of professional development.